TORY plans to slash £3bn off the benefits bill were in trouble last night, after David Cameron hinted at spending more - rather than less - money on getting the jobless back to work.

In an interview with The Northern Echo, the Conservative leader softened his eve-of-conference pledge to strip benefit from the long-term jobless who refuse to work.

The tough policy would have a big impact in the North-East, where 74,000 people claim incapacity benefit (IB), a legacy of the huge loss of manufacturing jobs in the 1980s.

Easington, in County Durham, where 11,100 people - 20 per cent of the working population - claim the benefit has long been recognised as the "IB capital" of England.

In the interview, Mr Cameron insisted his intention was to give more intensive help to IB claimants, adding: "This is not an 'On Your Bike' message."

He said: "I'm quite convinced that, if you take people on incapacity benefit, often they need that help and support and advice to help them get into work.

"That deep, personal connection, at the moment, with the current system, just isn't there."

But the comments were seized on by Labour as another example of the Tory leader using his Blackpool conference to make uncosted spending pledges.

The Government has spent £360m on Pathways to Work, its own programme to help IB claimants find work, with each getting a personal adviser and a £40 a week back-to-work reward.

Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "David Cameron's tax and benefit plans are unravelling.

"He has outlined no clear measures to achieve any savings and not a penny of extra investment in the necessary welfare to work programmes. The Tory sums simply don't add up."

On Sunday, Mr Cameron pledged to get 600,000 of the 2.7 million IB claimants back to work, saving £3bn to fund £1,600-a-year tax breaks for couples bringing up children.

In yesterday's interview, the Conservative leader also, for the first time, ditched a controversial proposal to deregulate mortgage services, following the Northern Rock crisis.

The suggestion, by rightwinger John Redwood, who chaired the competitiveness policy review, is the latest of many scrapped by Mr Cameron, some of which he branded "barmy".

The Tory leader said: "We certainly won't be going ahead with ideas of deregulating mortgages - that is absolutely clear. Sensible regulation is needed."

Meanwhile, in his make-or-break speech today, Mr Cameron will insist the blaze of tax-cutting announced this week do not amount to a "lurch to the right".

And he will pour scorn on Gordon Brown's promise of a spin-free "new politics", accusing him of using his own conference speech to make "rehashed and reannounced" pledges.

However, aides played down suggestions that Mr Cameron would follow Sir John Major in attacking the Prime Minister for failing to tell parliament first about the latest troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Instead, the Tory leader will expand on this week's three key themes - giving people more power, making families stronger and making Britain safer and greener.

He will say: "There's been a lot of talk about lurching. So let me make it clear - no lurch to the right, no lurch to the left. There's only one direction for me and that's forward to the future. A clear, balanced programme of change for the long-term."

Troops coming home - Page